Parcheesi Alternative — Play Ludo Free Online

What people actually want from Parcheesi

What people want is the shape of the game: four pieces, one die, a track around the board, the small cruelty of being sent back to the start when you were nearly home. It is a game people learned from a relative rather than from rules, which is why the version somebody grew up with feels like the correct one. Most searches here are for a free version that runs now, without an app store, and that four people in different places can join.

What Ludo does instead

This is Ludo, the version played across India, the Middle East and much of Europe, rather than the North American rules. In practice that means one die instead of two, a six to bring a piece out of base, another throw after a six or a capture, two of your own pieces protecting each other on a square, starred squares that are safe, and the exact number needed to come home. Two to four players, about half an hour to an hour, in a browser, with guests joining on a five-character code.

What it is not

It is not the same rules and does not claim to be. If you grew up with two dice, with the specific blockade rules, or with the particular safety and bonus squares of the North American board, those are not reproduced here and the game will feel subtly wrong in a way that is hard to place. There is also no way to change the rules to match — the house-rule options here are Ludo house rules. If the exact ruleset is the point, this is the wrong table.

Side by side

How Ludo plays

Ludo is a race game for two to four players, descended from the Indian game pachisi and played more or less unchanged across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe for a century. Each player takes a colour and four pieces, and the whole game is the journey those pieces make: out of the corner, once around the board, and up the home column into the centre. It takes about a minute to learn and considerably longer to stop arguing about, because the dice decide who moves and the players decide what to do about it. Nothing here is a variant invented for the web — these are the rules people actually play by.

Full Ludo rules, setup and common questions →

Common questions

Is Ludo the same game as Parcheesi?

They are cousins from the same Indian ancestor rather than the same game. Both race four pieces home around a cross-shaped track, but the number of dice, how pieces leave base, and how they are protected all differ. Somebody who knows one will recognise the other immediately and then trip over the details.

Which ruleset does this use?

The Ludo ruleset played across India, the Middle East and much of Europe: one die, a six to come out, an extra throw after a six or a capture, pairs that protect themselves, starred safe squares, and an exact roll to finish. The North American rules are not offered.

Is there a free online version I can play with family abroad?

That is the case this fits best. One person opens a board and sends the five-character code; everyone else types it in. Nobody installs anything and guests make no account, which matters most when the person you are playing with is not comfortable with app stores.

Can I change the rules to match the board I grew up with?

Not to the North American rules, no. The options in the lobby adjust things like the turn clock within the Ludo ruleset, not the ruleset itself. If matching a specific childhood board exactly is the point, no online version will really satisfy that and the boxed game is the better answer.